My Harem of Dangerous and Crazy Women as a Reincarnated Necromancer

The forest was silent at that hour of the morning.

Mark walked ahead with his hands in his pockets, and Rose moved beside him at that easy, unhurried pace of hers, her staff tapping softly against the ground with each step.

Meanwhile, Yuki followed a few steps behind, silent as always.

”Rose,” said Mark, without taking his eyes off the path.

”Hmm?”

”What do you know about the Demon Lord’s dungeon?”

Rose glanced at him sideways with a mildly amused expression, as if she found the question interesting.

”Not much,” she replied naturally. ”Or rather, nothing beyond legends and rumors.”

”Really?”

Rose let out a small, amused laugh.

”I’m only two hundred and fifty years old,” she said calmly. ”For a vampire, I’m actually quite young.”

She paused, adjusting her hat once more.

”By the time I was born, the Demon Lord had already been dead for decades... Everything related to that dungeon was a mystery to most people when I was young, and it still is now.”

Her lips curved slightly.

”Though I have to admit that’s part of what makes me curious.”

Mark processed that in silence as they kept walking.

Mark thought about Cali’s book, which he had been reading over the past few days hoping to find something useful.

The history of the war between humans and demons, written with detail and precision up to a point.

The problem was that the book had been written in the early stages of the conflict.

What it contained was probably useful at the time, but in practical terms for what he needed now, it was frustratingly limited.

Mark sighed inwardly.

”How much do you know about the war?” Mark asked after a moment, looking at Rose.

Rose considered the question with interest, tapping her staff softly against the ground as she walked.

”Enough to know it was an absolute disaster for both sides,” she said. ”The demons were superior in raw strength. No question. An average demon could take on several human soldiers without breaking a sweat, and the high-ranking ones were practically invincible to any normal fighter.”

”And they still lost?”

”And they still lost,” Rose confirmed, in a tone that made clear she found it just as ironic. ”Because humans had something that demons couldn’t crush with brute force.”

”The heroes?”

”The heroes,” she nodded. ”But not only them. Humans had an organizational capacity that demons could never match. They could lose battles, retreat, regroup, and come back. Demons were devastating on the attack, but terrible at long-term strategy.”

Mark listened carefully to the explanation.

’Matches what I read in Cali’s book.’

The demons attacked in massive waves, but with no real coordination between factions.

Each type of demon seemed to act semi-independently, as if there were no clear chain of command beyond the Demon Lord himself.

”And the Demon Lord?” Mark asked. ”What was he actually like?”

Rose fell silent for a moment, as if organizing her thoughts.

”That’s the interesting part,” she said finally, in a slightly more serious tone than usual. ”Depending on who you ask, you get completely different descriptions.”

”Like what?”

”Some texts describe him as a force of pure destruction. No strategy, no clear goals beyond killing and devouring.” Rose tapped the ground with her staff a little harder, thoughtful. ”Others describe him as a being of superhuman intelligence, capable of planning decades ahead.”

Mark frowned.

”Those two descriptions completely contradict each other.”

”Exactly,” said Rose, pointing at him as if he’d reached the right conclusion. ”And that’s what makes the whole thing so confusing... because both versions have evidence to back them up.”

’How can he be both things at the same time?’

Mark walked in silence for a few moments, turning it over in his mind.

’A being of pure destruction doesn’t organize armies or sustain a war for decades. But a being of superior intelligence doesn’t make the strategic blunders the Demon Lord apparently made. Something doesn’t add up.’

”Hey,” said Mark after a moment. ”What do you think about why the dungeon is still active?”

Rose raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised that he was asking for her opinion directly.

”Do you want what I think, or what the rumors say?”

”Both.”

Rose thought about it for a moment, looking ahead with a pensive expression.

”The craziest rumors,” she began casually, ”say that the Demon Lord was never really the one pulling the strings. That he was more like a visible figure of power, a symbol... but that someone or something else was making the real decisions from the shadows.”

”And what evidence do they have for that?”

”His contradictions,” Rose replied. ”Attacks with no strategic sense at moments when retreating would have been the most logical move. Inexplicable withdrawals when he had an absolute advantage. Decisions that don’t fit someone with his level of power and intelligence.”

She made a vague gesture with her hand.

”As if sometimes he acted on instinct... and other times he was following someone else’s orders.”

Mark felt something stir at the back of his mind.

A connection that hadn’t quite finished forming, like when you start putting together lore pieces in a video game that seem unrelated at first, but gradually reveal something much bigger.

”And what do you think about that?”

”That it’s an interesting theory,” Rose said bluntly, ”but probably false.”

”Why?”

”Because the Demon Lord was staggering in raw power. So staggering that the group of heroes who defeated him died in the process.”

She paused to let that sink in.

”All of them. Without exception. They won, yes... but it was a pyrrhic victory in the most literal sense.”

Mark nodded slowly.

”So if there had been someone above him,” Rose continued, ”someone with enough power and intelligence to move the Demon Lord like a chess piece... that someone would have to be something truly terrifying.”

Her red eyes looked straight ahead, thoughtful.

”And if something like that existed, it would have shown itself long ago.”

”And why didn’t it?” Mark asked.

”That’s exactly the point,” Rose replied. ”When the heroes died, the humans were left completely vulnerable. No champions. No one capable of facing a threat at that level.”

Her lips curved into a cold smile.

”It was the perfect moment to strike... the moment any conqueror would have seized without a second thought.”

The forest fell silent for an instant, broken only by their footsteps and the rhythmic sound of Rose’s staff.

”And yet,” she continued, ”instead of seizing that moment, most of the demons simply... withdrew. They abandoned the territories they controlled. They sealed themselves inside the dungeon and never came back out.”

Mark didn’t respond right away.

’They withdrew? Why?’

That was the question he couldn’t get out of his head.

’Are they waiting for something? Or are they protecting something?’

”That’s not what someone does when they’ve lost their leader and don’t know what to do,” Mark said slowly, almost to himself.

Rose glanced at him sideways.

”Oh, isn’t it?”

”No.” Mark frowned. ”Someone who loses their leader scatters. Fragments. Every faction goes its own way.”

He paused.

”But withdrawing in an organized fashion and sealing themselves in a single location... that requires coordination.”

The silence that followed was different from the one before.

Rose studied him with an expression Mark hadn’t seen on her before. Not amusement, not arrogance, not detachment.

”Not bad,” she said finally, in a more serious tone. ”That same conclusion took me considerably longer to reach.”

’So she had thought it through too? And yet she still dismissed the idea that there was something above the Demon Lord.’

Mark opened his mouth to ask her exactly that.

But before he could speak, a calm voice cut in from behind.

”Master.”

Mark looked back.

Yuki had stopped a few steps behind them, looking straight ahead with her usual expression.

”We’re here.”

Mark followed her gaze.

Beyond the last trees of the forest, the Demon Lord’s dungeon rise infront of them.